Electric Fillet Knife

[Hunterman]

How do you fillet a lingcod? I do it the same as a salmon, down the spine cutting through the ribs and all, flip it over and fillet the ribs off. Fast and easy.

I cut down the spine (like everyone else) to the ribs, but not through them. Then cut the meat away from the carcass. I don't like cutting the guts. Or do you gut your lings?

Hunterman(Tony)

[C-Money]

I Fillet as follows, (and would be easier with an electric on larger fish cause of the ribs) Cut down to spine behind gills, turn knife and follow spine threw rib cage, down to tail fin, remove meat from skin, repeat on other side. Remove rib bones from fillet, and pin bones (salmon/trout)

I zipped through a good pile of perch last night with my red handle fillet knife. We had one 16" walleye, and I thought of this thread and getting an electric while cutting through those ribs. On a good mess of walleye, it sure would be nice to be skilled with an electric.

[Camo]

Wife bought me an electric last x-mas. I will say that for my Feb/Mar walleye fishing, it allowed me to keep fish that I would not have kept in the past. More hassle than it was worth. However, for salmon I'm still using the Havalon.
If I was seriously looking for a faster way to fillet salmon, I would consider going this route:
How To Fillet A Salmon

[fisheral87]

I used a 8" boning knife when I worked as a deckhand. I currently have a buck folding fillet knife. I would not use an electric knife for soft scaled fish

If you gut your fish or not, (I don't) I would never suggest cutting the head off as it gives you a great way to hold the fish in order to run your blade down the spine of the fish and doing so will dull the blade faster. Also, it is my opinion that you should not use a sawing motion, particularly salmon, you run the risk of creating "waves" in the meat and leaving meat on the carcass.

If you are primarily working with hard scaled fish I could see the electric knife being a better option, but I would still lean towards the straight edge knife for quality of cutting.

[sirmissalot]

Gutting is usually unnecessary when you're filleting them. I usually end up gutting them out in the water though, since the boat is bloody already I go ahead and gut them, it keeps the ice cleaner because there's less blood, so I can use the same ice in the fish box several days in a row. Plus it's much less messy when we get back to the dock and it's time to fillet. No blood and no guts saves clean up at the dock.


The guy in that video fillets almost the exact same way as I do, other than I keep the head on, and I leave the collar on, that's my favorite part I feel it's a waste to leave it for the crabs.

[sirmissalot]

Gutting is usually unnecessary when you're filleting them. I usually end up gutting them out in the water though, since the boat is bloody already I go ahead and gut them, it keeps the ice cleaner because there's less blood, so I can use the same ice in the fish box several days in a row. Plus it's much less messy when we get back to the dock and it's time to fillet. No blood and no guts saves clean up at the dock.


The guy in that video fillets almost the exact same way as I do, other than I keep the head on, and I leave the collar on, that's my favorite part I feel it's a waste to leave it for the crabs.

[huntnnw]

I for one dont want to pack guts home and filleting at the river is illegal

[Blackjaw]

Electric fillet knifes are nice if you have a bunch of walleye to go through because you don't have to sharpen your blade every 3-4th fish.

[Dhoey07]

I gut my salmon and steelhead because i fillet the fish from the inside out.  Takes longer but you get a lot less wasted meat than the guy on the video